Transport ships of USSR in 1941-1945 - any info!!

[Giao]

Hi BIGpanzer,

The post-war fate of Captain A.Kacharava was quite tragic. Do you have more info about his GULAG years and afterward? Or some tips where to look?

Btw, there was recently an unveiling of his bust somewhere in Georgia.

[igorr]

From where you got such strange things? Kacharava never be repressed. All the other way he was decorated right after liberation in 1945, with Red Banner order. Then Kacharava commanded some merchant ships and ended on position of manager of Georgian State steamship company from 1966.
http://polarpost.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=4602

[Giao]

Page 3 of this thread:
...Lieutenant A. Kacharava and his sailors remained the heroes in German concentration camps of death, several of them (including the captain) returned back to USSR in 1945 and were arrested by NKVD as German spies (!). Captain A. Kacharava was released from GULAG labor camp after the death of Stalin, but was awarded only with simple Red Star order (lower Soviet order) instead of the Hero of Soviet Union, was almost forgotten for many years and worked as the captain of ice-breaker at Barents and Kara Seas till 1967...

Btw, English Wiki says Order of Red Banner.

[igorr]

This is lie without any proofs. On my link you can find photos and some articles about Kacharawa written in various places.
Only things i can agree is low status of his Order. Yes, this is may be sign of some mistrust to man who was in captivity. But still, this order he has in 1945. Strange thing if man was awarded while he was send in horrible GULAG, isn it?
There is so many myths about captured soviet people and GULAG in all. Even here in Russia.

[Giao]

Thanks for the link!

I went thru it by Google-Translation.
Though couldn’t find the date of decoration, mentioning him onboard as of 1948 doesn’t support Gulag version.

Would be much interested in his conduct during captivity, but doubt accurate info could be available now.

[igorr]

13.9.45 is date, on Decoration sheet. Second post from end, second scan from left.

[Giao]

Got it. Thank you!

[Elektraman]

I cover the ships that went from Pahlevi to Krasnovodsk in 1942 with the Polish Evacuees. I'm part of a few projects were we collect life accounts and lifestories along with other facts to try and work out what the ships names were etc. Please see for www.swoopingeagle.com. If you have anything to add please leave a reply here or contact me via the website.

http://www.swoopingeagle.com

[koalashooter]

I'm hoping one of the regulars to this board (or occasional readers like myself) have a list of Soviet merchant ship callsigns from the 1941-45 period. My interest is the Soviet transports that operated in the Pacific. Some of these were ex American ships typically war built Liberty ships or standard ships from WW1 with several tankers. Most of these ex US ships were given a UU prefix.

Because the ships had to transit Japanese waters (typically the La Perouse Strait) while sailing from US/Canada to USSR they were obligated to notify the Japanese in advance of their intended route. Typically this would include the ship's name which the Japanese would phonetically render in katakana. Sometimes errors occurred, either accidental or deliberate (the Russians deliberately deceived the Japanese with call signs of vessels that were elsewhere on occasion). In addition errors occurred. All of this means not all of the below callsigns may be correct. I've stated with the callsign the Japanese katakana translation (noting the Japanese use r instead of l in their syllabary):

E-Ru-Shi-Mi-Tsu-To UNYG
Vo-Ro-Tsu-Su-Ku UOLG
I-Wa-N- Ya-Bu--Ma UOBL
Shi-e-ro-ni UOCA
Po--to-ra-N-Do UOMQ
To-Ru-Gu-N-Ku-Su UPCE
Tsu-O-Ru-Su UPEK
Tsu-Ne-Tsu UPIS
Da--su-da-i UPZA
Na-N-Tsu-N-Su-Ki-I UPZJ
To-Tsu-I-Chi UQAM
E-fu Na-N-Tsu-N-Su-Ki USON
U--E-A-Tsu-Ne-Tsu-Fu ? (no callsign provided- appears to be ship ending in neft)
Sa-N-De-I-Go UUMO
Lu-Tsu-Ke UUYZ
A-ko-- UVCL

UOMQ and UUMO probably refer to Portland and San Diego as ports of origin and are either misinterpretations or deliberate attempts to mislead. The sailing dates are mostly 1943-44.

[mjbollinger87]

Do you have the ONI reports prepared in WWII identifying Soviet ships in operation in the Pacific? These have the call signs you are looking for. Here is the citation:

Office of Chief of Naval Operations, ONI-208R: Russian Merchant Vessels (Washington, D.C.: Intelligence Division, December 20, 1942).

Marty

[Darius333]

Hello friends,

can you help us to identify this soviet ship under german bombs in this eBay auction?
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Volltreffer-auf ... 0005.m1851
It is said the action took place in October 1941 - but some collegues suggest it is maybe the ARMENIYA, sunk on 11th November.

Regards

Darius

[GregSingh]

It doesn't look like Armenia.
Photo description says 10K tonne ship in the area Odessa-Mykolaiv-Sevastopol.
Armenia sunk E of Yalta and it was ~5K tonne ship.

[igorr]

Only ship hit and sunk that place, that time was BOLSHEVIK at Odessa evacuation. But it was sunk by torpedo. I think at foto some big barge around 1000 grt, not a cargo ship and of course no 10000 brt. Soviet side have no such ship at Black sea at all, btw.

[mjbollinger87]

There were a few ships or uncompleted hulls of 10,000 GRT or so in the Black Sea at this time. None of these, however, were active cargo ships.

DNEPR (ex CABO SAN AUGUSTIN) was 12,589 GRT and was sunk by torpedo on 3 October 1941 off Novorossiysk. This was not a cargo ship. It was a training ship operated by the Black Sea shipping company.

The never-completed cargo ship TRUD was 11,460 GRT. It was captured incomplete by the Germans in Mariupol on 8 October 1941.

TRUD's sister ship PROLETARII (ex. DIKTATURA). also of 11,460 GRT, was just an incomplete hull when moved from Mariupol to Novorossiysk in October 1941. It was sunk there on 2 July 1942 in an air attack.

VOLGA (ex JUAN SEBASTIAN ELCANO) was operated in the Black Sea and survived the war as a depot ship and/or submarine tender. It was 9,965 GRT.